Profile

Every good product deserves its eternal salesperson.

Portrait of Hugo Zuffo, senior packaging designer.

The shelf is noisy and crowded. The shopper gives you three seconds. In self-service nobody stands next to the product to explain it. Either the pack sells, or nobody sells.

I am Hugo Zuffo, senior packaging designer, with more than 10 years in graphic design specialised in end-to-end packaging. I learn the product from the engineers or nutritionists who built it, I read the shelf as if it were a market report, and I turn attributes into honest reasons to buy. No decoration for the sake of aesthetics. Method, hierarchy and craft, down to the last millimetre of the die-line. I am currently the packaging designer responsible for Deca (Dexco S.A.), one of Brazil's leading bathroom brands, with more than 200 projects across five categories, and I design premium spirits packaging for American and European brands with Think Bold Studio (Portugal), in an entirely English-language workflow.

In 2026, the World Packaging Organisation jury named one of my projects the most effective marketing pack among all of the year's winners: the Special Award Marketing Gold, one of the three WorldStars my packaging took that year. A retailer put it better: she sold my product on video without ever opening the box.

Packaging is the product's salesperson. Beyond the design, I write its pitch.

How I work

  • I study until I become the reference. Immersion with the team responsible for development (nutrition or engineering) and with marketing before any layout. I leave the room knowing the product better than anyone who will design for it.
  • The shelf first. Real shelf, real competitors: category research at the point of sale, decisions tested against the aisle. A shelf photo is worth more than a floating mockup.
  • From briefing to print-ready artwork. End to end, with no loose handovers: strategy, scalable systems, print-ready artwork, regulatory QA, every validation and approval stage of the packaging system, 3D rendering.
  • I teach what I do. Every project becomes a lesson. The method is open, because in packaging, as on the shelf, a claim needs proof.

Recognition

  • WorldStar Special Award Marketing Gold, WPO 2026 · Verify →
  • WorldStar Packaging Award, WPO 2026, Deca Food Waste Disposer · Verify →
  • WorldStar Packaging Award, WPO 2026, Pérola · Verify →
  • 2× Silver at the Prêmio ABRE 2025 · Bronze at the Brasil Design Award 2025 · Grandes Cases 2025 · Design for a Better World 2025. See all awards →

Capabilities

  • Shelf research and strategy: category analysis, shopper hierarchy, translating attributes into benefits
  • Visual systems that scale across entire product lines
  • Artwork and prepress: print-ready files (AI / PDF X-1a)
  • Luxury finishes: hot stamping, embossing, speciality papers, offset and flexography
  • Regulatory compliance and QA: a non-negotiable checklist before release
  • Photorealistic 3D rendering for approval and e-commerce (Pacdora, Dimension)

Outside the studio

I visit printers and suppliers, I research the shelf in person before any layout, and I work the industry fairs, including Interpack in Düsseldorf, the largest packaging fair in the world. Outside work I sing in a rock band: four people, a live audience, everything in sync under pressure. It is the same job as a shelf, really: three seconds to win the room.

Education and languages

Postgraduate degree in Packaging Design (ESPM São Paulo) · Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design (FAAL) · Branding (LAJE). Portuguese (native), English (fluent, daily working language).